Obituaries offer clues for family researchers
by ELAINE POWERS

Common, but often overlooked, sources of information for an ancestor are the death notice and the obituary. If your ancestor lived and died in the same place you will have but one newspaper to check. But if your ancestor moved around during his lifetime you will have more localities to search out. Look in the newspaper where the ancestor spent the better part of his life and also in the newspaper in the place where the person died.

Death notices, generally printed for free, usually give essential information such as the date of death, where the service will be held and sometimes the cemetery or place of burial. Here is an example from The Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, North Carolina, 13 April 2003:

FREDERICKSBURG, VA – Ola Price ‘Ma’ Cash, 81, died Thurs., April 10. Visitation will be 7-8:30 p.m. Tuesday at McKinney—Landreth Funeral Home, Cliffside, NC. Graveside services will be 11 a.m. Wednesday at Cliffside Cemetery.

The clue in this notice is that there is some connection between Cliffside, N.C., and Fredericksburg, Va.

Obituaries are longer than death notices and contain much more detail. Sometimes they are written by the newspaper staff if the person was a prominent citizen or if the death was unusual. More commonly, family members pay to have biographical-memorial-type accounts of the person’s life printed.

In any case, an obituary can give important information about the deceased’s family members, religion, burial place and even comments on character. Bud Garst found genealogy resources in the obituary of his grandfather, John Thomas James, who died Dec. 9, 1918, at age 64. James’ obituary noted services were held at Salem Baptist Church, that burial was at East Hill Cemetery and that James had moved to the Salem area from Botetourt in 1905. It also listed names and addresses (city and state) of James’ nine children.

Libraries generally keep back files only for the local newspaper. Consult the Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media, which is arranged by state and then city to help you find newspapers in other locations. Most of the time you can obtain out-of- town newspapers on microfilm through interlibrary loan, so ask about this at your library.

For out of print newspapers look at A History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820 by Clarence Brigham. Don’t forget to check the indexes for The New York Times as well because you just might find an obituary for an ancestor there, you never know.

You also might want to do some searches on the Internet for obituaries. Several sites have attempted to compile old notices and current obituaries can be found on newspapers’ sites. Search for “obituaries” or “old obituaries.”

Genealogy conference

The annual National Genealogical Society conference will be in Pittsburgh, Pa., May 28-31, 2003, at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. The conference brings together genealogists and family historians, professionals and non-professionals. Contact the National Genealogical Society (Arlington): phone (703) 525-0050; toll free (800) 473-0060; email conference@ngsgenealogy.org; website www.ngsgenealogy.org. 

Click Here to visit the web site for the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors. 

Elaine Powers is librarian in the Roanoke City Library’s Virginia Room.

Comments or questions? E-mail to comments@primeliving.net.